Latest Comments by cchezem15

I am starting my new position on Thursday as an LVN in a busy family practice. Up until this point, I have been working corrections for a little over a year. It is definitely going to be a change of scenery. I am really nervous though because I am going to be exposed to pediatric patients which is a WHOLE new world for me.

Anyone have any tips on surviving in an family practice? I am used to crazy busy, believe me - it is crazy in the jail 24/7.

I currently work for this company. They are a decent company with a pretty good salary. Just keep in mind this company tries to provide healthcare on a dime and it can be frustrating at times. Overall, I enjoy it. I have a great HSA and a great team that I work with

So, I have been working at my first nursing job for about 10 months. I loved the job at first, but now I find myself HATING work. (BTW I work at a county jail) I feel like I am in constant fear of doing something wrong because I am so overwhelmed at times. I live in this constant fear of losing my license or doing something wrong that I stress myself to the max. We are going through a transition from being run by the county to being run by a private company - this is literally killing me. This past week I broke down and cried twice at work. I have been trying to look for outlets to move on, but I cannot get any call backs. I mean I have probably applied for 15 jobs and NOTHING! I am taking my last class this fall so that I can apply for a transition program to RN. I just feel like I am starting to get burnt out, I mean I dread going back to work. I know that this is probably to be expected with a transition, but seriously it has been absolute CHAOS at work. I do love some aspects of my work - like the people I work with, I have met some of the best people there, but like my husband says, you cant stay just because of the people. I know I am probably rambling, but maybe I just need some words of encouragement for me to push forward.

I have been working at a county jail as an LVN for about 8 months now (it was my first job out of nursing school). So far I really love the environment and most of the people I work with. The only downfall is that I work every single weekend (my schedule is Sat-Tues). I get that I am new to the facility and all, but the fact that we do not have rotating schedules bugs me - Although I do not have children, I do have a husband and friends I would love to spend time with - but everyone I know is a M-F worker and has weekends off. My husband & I were talking a few weeks ago and he stated he would really enjoy it if I had a job where I had some weekends off a month (me and him do not have days off together, so we only get to spend a couple hours a day together) - So I went to apply at some different places to see what all was out there. I had one interview last Tuesday and the whole time the interviewer was making statements on how correctional nurses are typically mean and have no compassion, etc. The whole time I felt as if she was talking down about me because of my current place of employment.

This got me to thinking - is working in a correctional setting going to be a negative thing against me when I get my BSN and try to work in a non-correctional setting? Do you guys ever think that you are judge because of the type of work you do?

I truly love what I do - I believe that I am getting some really great experience working here because I REALLY have to use my assessment skills, I see people on all different ends of disease spectrums (if that makes sense haha), and I never have a boring day. (Of course I could go on and on)

I just hope that in the end working this job will not work against me.

I got my first job at my county jail. I love it. Yeah its stressful most days, but I am gaining so much experience as a LVN its ridiculous. I deal with so many different aspects of nursing. You have to keep a mindset that most people are lying and really use your assessment skills that you learned while in school. Like the first person said, you kinda have to juggle two jobs in one - nursing and security in a sense. Always have your guard up! One thing too, if you decide to take a job in corrections, know the population of people you are going to be working with - child molesters, murders, drug dealers, etc. If you believe that your opinions are going to get in the way of providing care, do not do it. I see some people I work with constantly judge inmates and it effects the quality of care they give. These people are humans despite what they have done, and you are not the person to be passing the judgement - do what you were trained to do - give medical care.

One a good note, its definitely a different area of nursing and there is NEVER a dull moment! One second everything can be calm and then next thing you know your holding a inmates penis to stop the bleeding because he decided to cut it open to place a shaped domino in there (yes, this happens A LOT)

Correctional nursing in my opinion is great! This was my first job out of nursing school and I feel like I have already learned so much. Our MD is not there 24/7 so you have to learn to use your critical thinking skills A LOT! I like the autonomy I get and that I get to deal with many different areas (chronic care, acute care, psych, triage), especially as an LVN. I am very cautious though at the same time, I document everything and if I am ever unsure about a situation, I call the MD. I would recommend to you that if you cannot keep your judgements at the door, do not work in this environment. You will be treating many different types of people and some have done horrible things. Overall though, I love the environment and all the skills that I use. I truly believe that it will beneficial when I move on to receive my RN.

Pros -
- a lot of skills that you do not get to use in a nursing home (at least at the homes in my area) you get to use here (EKG, IV starts, triage situations)
- There is a wide variety of nursing areas crammed into one area - Psych, med-surg, ER, substance abuse, etc.
- Absolutely NEVER a dull moment.
- You really have to use your knowledge on disease process because inmates will lie through their teeth to get what they want.
- You do not have to worry about families

Cons -
- There are a lot of skills that I learned in school that I do not use where I work - Foleys, Trach suctioning
- There are a lot of skills that we didn't touch on much in school that would be VERY helpful to know
- You work with a less than desirable patient population, but as nurses I believe we are taught to keep our judgements at home and do what we were trained to do and that is provide care.

On a different note - I absolutely love where I work, and I believe I am getting the best experience for an LVN who looks to transition to RN to become either a ER nurse or possible Psych nurse. There are times where I have to get "tough" on the inmates, but that is actually very rare, most of them are usually respectful towards me. One piece of advice I would like to give you is if you cannot keep your judgements at the door (you do treat child molesters, murders, etc.) I do not think it would be a place for you. I see some people I work with that carry these with them at work and I believe it causes them to treat the inmates as less than humans. I do understand that these people have done less than desirable things, but they are still humans that need treatment for whatever it may be. I also see that it makes their day a little more stressful than what it needs to be. I try to not think about those things and go on with my day. My nursing professor told me to think about this - the inmates in jail are the ones who have gotten caught for their crimes, there are very many out there that we treat in the hospital who could have done the same thing or even worse and we have no idea about it.

I just graduated in May with my VN certificate and everyone in my class is all about getting back into the program next year. Yeah I want to transition to RN, but I need a little break from school. I just want to live my life for a bit without always having to worry about school work. I will start again in 2014

I work as an LVN at my local county jail. I was a brand new grad with no prior experience in healthcare. I absolutely love it! There are a lot of things that you get to do and for me there is never a dull moment so it makes it fun best of luck to you!

I will say that it is a great job with a lot of things you can do (especially me being a LVN) I love the people I work with and everything. I do not know how a prison is, but I feel very comfortable being in the jail and not worried for my safety one bit.